One of the curious aspects of life in Lutfur’s Democratic Republic of Tower Hamlets is the growing cult of personality and how history is being rewritten. The late Kim il Sung was adept at this as well.
Lutfur’s smiling face seems to be appearing everywhere, from multiple pages in East End Life to the sides of dustbin lorries and lampposts.
He’s now even personalised our council tax bills, sending us all a letter saying that “my budget” included a decision to give 0ver-60s a rebate of £50. Funny that, because I could have sworn that his budget as presented at the council meeting on February 22 contained no such proposal. I must have imagined it. Yes, that’s right, that Labour amendment (which I thought Lutfur later accepted) demanding a £50 rebate for pensioners was just a dream. Silly me. And when we see Lutfur touring the borough in his chauffeur-driven Mercedes handing out £50 notes to cheering older folk, won’t that make us feel all warm and good.
I suppose this is one of the things we must get used to in our shiny new postal-vote heavy Republic.
I mention this because, Labour’s Abdal Ullah has asked me to promote a football tournament taking place later this month. It’s called the SNT Cup, that’s the Safer Neighbourhood Tournament. He founded it 10 years ago and it grew to be quite an event, based on the Met Police’s safer neighbourhood areas in east London.
Of course, because it was so successful the cuckoos in Lutfur’s camp tried to steal it. And so it came to pass that last year, (in addition to the aborted Mayor’s Cricket Cup), we had the inaugural Mayor’s Cup which forced Abdal to move from Victoria Park and find a new home in Hackney Marshes. (Lutfur insisted he wanted a tournament for Tower Hamlets teams only, but laughably the inaugural winners were E7 FC, named after the, er, Forest Gate postcode.)
However, as you’d expect, Abdal was undeterred and trumped Kim il Lutfur by making his SNT Cup bigger and better than ever, even managing to get the Premier League and FA Cup trophies on display. This year, he’s persuaded Olympic sponsors Coca Cola to bring the Olympic Torch.
You really couldn’t make it up, could you.
Anyway, here’s Abdal’s press release, which has a lovely line about West Ham fanatic (and Parliament’s most talented footballer) Jim Fitzpatrick…
Safer Neighbourhood Tournament to take London by storm
The Safer Neighbourhood Tournament (SNT), an exciting community grassroots football tournament has returned for 2012. Now in its tenth year, the celebrated tournament is the brainchild of Stepney & St Dunstan’s member, Councillor Abdal Ullah. As a contributory member of the London Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), Abdal Ullah was of the opinion that football was a medium that could be used to effectively unite masses, whilst improving relationships between young people and the police.
What started off as a small community event consisting of half a dozen teams has now grown to become one of London’s biggest weekend one day knockout tournaments. This year 72 teams and thousands of spectators will be attending the April footballing bonanza.
The tournament is East London based but has traditionally attracted teams from all over London. This year, Hackney Marshes, the starting point for many of football’s icons will once again be the venue for the knock-out stage of the tournament.
Commenting on the upcoming football festival Abdal Ullah said: “We are very proud of the success of our tournament. This is our 10th year and we have now officially become one of the biggest grassroots football events in London. We gained support from FA and it was an honour to be one of the projects that were highlighted during England’s FIFA World Cup
2018 bid.“The SNT Cup has support from the Met Police, NHS, TATA, McDonalds, Coco Cola, The Sun newspaper, Kick it Out, and many other local and national organisations, including London 2012. In previous years we have secured the FA Cup and Premier League trophy for display at our tournament. As a special surprise, on Sunday 29th April we will have the Olympic torch on display!”
He added: “This being our 10th year and the year of the London Olympics, we are very keen to make the tournament even more special, we are keen to attract teams from all over the country.”
The date for the knock out section is Sunday 29th April at Hackney Marshes, and the final will be played at a Prestigious London Football ground.
Abdal Ullah has also exclusively confirmed that on the day (April 29th) Coca Cola will bring along the Olympic torch for 4 Hours, whilst McDonalds will provide support to the event. And FA Community Shield will be on display from 10 AM till 3 Pm on the day, and there will be a message of support and health tips from Dr Zaf Iqbal, Liverpool FC’s first team doctor.There will be health promotion events from the East London NHS health team and Safer London Foundation will also be present addressing issues of Community Safety.
Abdal Ullah also confirmed that the “Man of the match” award will be named after 27 year Kelvin Brown, who recently died after collapsing playing football on Hackney Marshes. A veteran’s cup will be named after local MP Jim Fitzpatrick.The tournament is divided into several age categories – under 16s, over 16s, veterans (over 35) and for the very first time a women’s tournament has also been scheduled with the only Muslim women’s football team taking part. The winning purse is £1000+. Prior to the start of the tournament a live TV show on Channel 9 17th April (SKY 834) 7.15 PM will feature special guests announcing the tournament draw with the NPower Championship trophy in the studio.
Anyone interested should log on to www.sntcup.com or www.stepneyfc.com for further details, and highlights from previous tournaments.
Trial by Jeory 
A bit bizarre that Cllr Abndal Ullah is promoting this as a health initiative while the event is sponsored by Cocoa Cola and Mc Donalds.. This is a big mistake.
Cllr Ullah should not have this event sponsored by either Cocoa Cola or Mc Donalds as both companies promote fast foods for children which is damaging childrens health
Oh come now, Stuart, playing football is healthy – isn’t that the point?
With the Olympics coming I’m surprised that the Mayor/ council aren’t doing more around sport – they’ve missed a trick. I think wards should all be encouraged to do things like this http://www.highwayneighbours.org/ we’re so ahead of you in LAP4! Lots of sport / community stuff planned around the Olympics.
Abdal Ullah is a fantastic Cllr who works really hard for residents across the borough not just the ones in his ward. I know some people think he’s a bit of a wheeler-dealer but I’m really surprised that Labour group haven’t made better use of him. Hopefully after their AGM they’ll get rid of MR T who does nothing but canter around in our gold chain and replace him with Abdal.
@Stuartmadewell bah humbug.
Stuart Madewell. Surely the most misnamed person in the world. Mind you he is a Trotskyist.
Has anyone heard of the Tower Hamlets School Sport Partnership / Youth Sport Foundation?
There is always stuff in the national media about what good work they do.
Wondered what relationship the Mayor had with them?
Ted, I agree to most of what you have said above, but do want to add a few comments:
– The Mayors cup is not the idea of the Mayor, but Cllr Oliur. He developed it as a consequence of his rivalry with Abdal. This rivalry is seriously damaging grass roots football in east london and someone needs to get both of these politicians out of the football scene. They are causing more damage then good. They should both let others do this and they should be busy doing what we elected them to do, represent us and not be busy organising egotistic football tournaments.
– What I also want to add is that one is a private event, wrapped up as a community event by getting one or 2 local football teams involved. It is a commercial event with thousands of pounds profit made by one individual. No one has seen what income or expenditure there is for this tournament. Predictions based on the number of logos on the flyer is that the tournament receives somewhere in the region of £40,000 – £50,000, most of which is public money. The tournament at most cost £15,000 – £20,000 to organise. Where does the rest of the money go? It sure doesn’t go to any of the football teams that are involved in organising it, as they do it for the love and passion of football. I checked with one of the team and they have said they receive no money from the tournament. They help out, to help raise the profile of their football team.
I will ask this of you and anyone else reading this is, do a few FOIs with the housing associations, the council, NHS, Police and others whose logos apear on the posters to see what income each tournament has had. Then go to each of the Cllrs and ask them to show the evidence of the expenditure for each of the years, as this will reveal the potential profiteering by these Cllrs at the expense of the football community.
If they are truly doing this for the community, then they will have no problem showing the income and expenditure for their respective events. If on the other hand they are private events, then have they registered their interest in the members interest and declared this as required.
I hope this is looked into by you or someone else, as this could potentially reveal the truth and potentially corruption at the heart of our council.
Ted, any chance you can do a new article on the above as most people have moved on to the new articles. I think it deserves its own article. These cllrs are destroying local football and we need them to step away.
I have just come across this FOI on the SNT football tournament:
Click to access Freedom%20of%20Information%20Request%206172.pdf
The FOI reveals that the tournament received £33,200 in the period of 2008-2010. Thats £16,600 per year if split equally. Now consider all the other income from the NHS, Police, Housing Associations, etc whose logos appear on the posters each year. As someone who has been involved in many football tournaments it costs nowhere near that amount to organise such a tournament as the SNT. The pitches are given free by the council so is mile end stadium where the final is held, as the event is branded as a community event. So the main costs are trophies, publicity, refreshments and referees.
Click to access Abdal-Ullah-3.pdf
Just checked on the declaration of members interest and nowhere is their interest in the SNT or any of the teams involved in helping organising it registered. So which ever organisation (or even a separate organisation not listed) the money has gone into from the council, it should have been declared on the members interest.
“Commenting on the upcoming football festival Abdal Ullah said: “We are very proud of the success of our tournament. This is our 10th year and we have now officially become one of the biggest grassroots football events in London.”
As everyone knows and he himself has said in his press release above he has been the lead in organising it, he shouldve declared it in his interest.
Click to access Abdal-Ullah-3.pdf
Its all about our politicians egos and making money at our expense.
I agree. i think it is an interesting story and I will try to find the time. Best way to pester me on it is via email. However, there is no proof at all that politicians are profiting personally.